"That's... oh..." Kellan bit his lip, trying to reconcile the words he'd grown up knowing with what was different in this new world. "It's almost harder when things seem similar and then... aren't." He hesitated, but Jiao was patient and didn't seem to mind his misunderstandings, so he nodded and did his best to hold the new facts firmly in his mind so he wouldn't make the same mistake again.
Hearing that the bubble around the Hollowed Grounds had existed to keep something bad in rather than out didn't exactly reassure him that it was a place he wanted to go. The lack of specifics were the opposite of reassuring, his imagination already populating the land beyond the portal with monsters and disease and demons. "So the bad thing is... loose?" he asked cautiously.
Jiao's swift negation about the portal shot down Kellan's brief hope that he might be heading home after all. "How many other Outlanders are there?" he asked instead, perking up at hearing that he wasn't alone. "Does this... do people like me... end up here a lot?"
Hearing that the bubble around the Hollowed Grounds had existed to keep something bad in rather than out didn't exactly reassure him that it was a place he wanted to go. The lack of specifics were the opposite of reassuring, his imagination already populating the land beyond the portal with monsters and disease and demons. "So the bad thing is... loose?" he asked cautiously.
Jiao's swift negation about the portal shot down Kellan's brief hope that he might be heading home after all. "How many other Outlanders are there?" he asked instead, perking up at hearing that he wasn't alone. "Does this... do people like me... end up here a lot?"
